Chocolate: Unclichéd
by Arisadonna
Summary: Valentine’s Day—such an overly cliché holiday of chocolate-giving and confessions. White Day—an even more annoying day where girls became even worse than they were before. But there's still one girl Ikuto's willing to give a return gift to. One-shot.


March competition at Guardian's Wish, in which we create a story, art, or graphic based on White Day. Sukii kept pestering me to use Rimau for it, but I had no idea and it was too expected of me to write a Rimau fic for the competition. xD So I went with Amuto, who a story from me was way overdue. Then again, so is Rimau. D:

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**CHOCOLATED: UNCLICHÈD**

Valentine's Day—such an overly cliché holiday of chocolate-giving and love confessions. It was the same every year, and no matter how many times the event came, he always saw it the same way—cliché and pretty annoying.

And it was on that day, he definitely knew he had to hide away from the rest of the world. He was never the social type of guy, but apparently girls liked that. He could hear from wherever he was the squeals of girls watching him from corners, going on and on about how tragic emo boys were so "hot" or "bishie" whatever it was they said.

And as if they weren't scary enough, he had to put up with even his own sister chasing after him, wanting to "give all her love through the delicious taste" of some heart-shaped chocolates. She always made sure to note that she had made them herself, which made it even worse. She had never been the best cook around. He shivered at the thought of passed experiences in the kitchen with her and exploding chickens and peas. He could never look at poultry the same way again.

That year, knowing his sister would search their home with mad detective skills, he just fled to the park, finding a nice tree to make himself comfortable in. Having his catlike qualities, getting up there was no trouble and he knew he'd be out of reach of anyone else.

It wasn't more than five minutes relaxing there that he had already fallen into a deep sleep, immediately escaping from the terrors of that so-called romantic day of the year where girls formed armies to take down their objects of affections with their weapons of sweets.

"Ikuto! Ikuto!" cried out a childish voice in his ears, causing his eyes to flutter open. Before him, he saw a young floating cat boy, with his usual mischievous grin. "Ikuto! Looks like we have a guest!"

Ikuto turned his head and looked down from the tree, spotting the all-too-familiar pink-haired girl walking through the park, most likely on her way home. He smirked, watching as she argued with her shugos due to their teasing ways. Sitting up, he continued to watch, wondering if he was willing to go down there to bug her.

"Ikuto!"

He turned to Yoru, who had sparkling eyes. It took him a moment, but he realized what it was Yoru sensed.

Chocolate. Coming from Amu.

"Don't even think about it," he told his little cat shugo. And before he could give a reply, Ikuto hopped out of the tree, directly in front of Amu, who gave a frightening scream.

"I-I-Ikuto!" She spoke nervously, pouting to not make notice of the red blush that crossed her face.

But he noticed it. It was hard not to. He gave his usual sneaky grin, leaning down to her, moving his face closer to hers. "Is that chocolate I smell?"

As expected, the red shade on her cheeks grew darker. She turned her face away, attempting not to look straight at him. "T-t-that's none of your business!"

"Hmm," he shrugged his shoulders, turning on his heel to walk away. "Guess not."

"W-wait!" She called out, causing him to turn back around. She didn't do make a move at first, but finally reached into her bag and pulled out a box. In one swift move, she shoved the box in his hands. "It's just cause you've helped me a lot in the past and ... and that's all it is, okay!?"

Before he could say a word, she rushed past him, quickly running from him as fast as her legs could take her.

Ikuto watched her for a moment and finally looked down at the item in his hands.

Chocolate.

White Day—an even more annoying day than Valentine's in the sense that girls became even worse than they were before. Why? Well, now they were all expecting something in return for what they had given before.

But Ikuto couldn't really complain. Why the idea of it was more annoying, it wasn't as scary as Valentine's. Since he managed to escape the crazed screams and chocolates of the squealing girls, it would be as though he had gotten nothing from them, hence there would be no expectations of him giving them anything in return.

Utau was an exception in this case, because no matter how much he escaped her on Valentine's, she'd always find a way to sneak into his room that night and put the chocolate on his night table.

Since they were siblings and all, Ikuto figured he'd be nice enough to give her something in return. So every year, he'd buy her one solitary chocolate—the smallest he could find—and give it to her quickly without so much of a word. It didn't matter considering that that was enough to keep her happy.

Something was different this year though. Though he escaped receiving chocolate from everyone besides Utau, one girl did manage to get some in his hands.

Hinamori Amu.

A month had passed, yet he could still taste her chocolate. It had given him such an amazing sensation and he could immediately tell she had put forth effort into making it on her own. The explosion in his mouth from the taste wasn't something store-bought chocolate could do.

It was odd, considering that whether or not she had given Tadase chocolates as well or not, he couldn't imagine it having as much power as his own. Ironically, wasn't Tadase the one she was supposed to like?

The question now was, what was he to do? A month had passed and it was now time to consider whether he'd "return the favor" or not. Since she said it was just meant as a thanks for what he had done for her, giving her something in return wouldn't be considered a big deal. After all, according to how she put it, it wasn't as though it was "love chocolate".

Whatever it was supposed to mean, on the night of March 14, Ikuto found himself in front of Amu's home. It was cold, so he had himself bundled up in a leather jacket. He was also alone, considering Yoru had wandered off with his alley cat friends to who-knew-where.

The lights of the house were all off, save for a small night light coming from within Amu's room. Simply enough, that showed him she wasn't sleeping yet, which made things a little easier on him—though if she had been asleep, he probably would have woken her up anyway just to tease her.

Despite not being in chara change with Yoru, hopping up to her balcony wasn't a difficult task, having become quite used to it overtime. Peeking through the glass, he saw Amu sitting at her desk, sitting at her desk, reading a book. Though her eyes were open, it was only partially, and he could tell she was on the brink of sleeping.

Even so, he tapped lightly on the glass, causing her head to jolt up to look at him. Her eyes widened, showing she had been quite surprised by his sudden appearance, but instead of growing angry as usual—probably due to not being fully awake right then—she stepped over and opened her door.

"Ikuto ... what are you doing here?"

He didn't say anything, simply looking past her, catching sight of the inside of her room. He could see her four eggs aligned on her table, with all of her shugos probably sleeping cozily inside. The rest of her room wasn't so in order though, and he made a point to make note of that, "Pretty messy, aren't you?"

She sent a light glare at him. "Exams are coming soon. What are you doing here?"

"What do you think I'm doing here?"

She didn't answer and just gazed at him. Her glare disappeared quickly and she stared with calm eyes, showing she seemed to know exactly what he had come for. Her cheeks began to turn into that same red shade it had a month before. "I-if this is about the chocolate, I told you it wasn't a big deal."

"Did I say it was?"

For some reason, this made her blush more and she turned her head away, attempting to put on her usual tough expression. "Well, if you're not here for anything, then just go away, will you?"

Ikuto glared. "So you don't want it?"

She blinked, casually looking at him through the corner of her eye. "Want ... it?"

"A return gift."

" ... I said you didn't have to."

"Hmm. Well, the store was all out of chocolates anyway. Good thing you didn't want anything."

She turned her head to stare at him directly. "If you're just here to tease, Ikuto, then just--!"

"Go away? Not just yet," he said, as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a wrapped little spherical item. "Store was out, but I did manage to do a little something. I guess you could have it if you want it."

Amu stared at the hand, blinking repeatedly. "Chocolate?"

"That's right. Want it?" He didn't wait for a reply, and just as she opened her mouth to speak, he unwrapped the paper pulling out a small round piece of chocolate. However, instead of handing it over to her, he placed it in his own mouth. "Not bad, I should admit," he spoke in a muffled tone.

As expected, Amu stared at him with shocked eyes. "W-w-what was that about, you jerk!?" She could have ranted more, but soon enough, Ikuto took a hold of her chin and pulled her face to his own.

It began as a simple kiss—lips on lips, cold to the touch from the surprisingly cold weather of soon-to-be spring. Ikuto parted his lips, though, causing the two to then share the taste of the chocolate, passing the sweetness of it from his mouth to hers.

The taste of the chocolate brought a flash of that same taste a month earlier. It was just simple homemade chocolate, but there was something about it that was connecting the two of them. As the dark brown sugary sweet melted in the mouth, it let out a passing of something else, as well.

Calling it love would be too cheesy, and Ikuto really hated "cheesy" things. But he couldn't deny that there was some sort of passage of feelings revealing a longing for one another. Although "longing" would probably still not be a word to use, because somehow, despite not always seeing each quite often, the connection they shared was still there between them, undeniable, even by those who simply witnessed it.

Amu had long since given in to the kiss, letting Ikuto take her over, as he held her face with his cold hands, pulling her close. Unforunately though, a stir from Ran from inside her egg caused a shaking noise that brought Amu back to reality, pulling her face away from the boy.

As if her face hadn't been red enough before, even though it was cold, her face was probably steaming hot at this point. She was obviously more confused now than she swore she was, and simply looked at Ikuto, unsure of what to say, while he simply just gazed at her, keeping his usual sneaky grin in place.

"I think it's better when you share. Last month, it felt pretty greedy to have that chocolate all by myself."

"T-t-that ... you kissed me!" She cried out, still in a semi-quiet voice as to not wake anyone up. "Sharing chocolate? You're such a pervert!" There she was. Typical spazzing Amu was finally back, though her mind was bursting with so much confusion just then.

"Oh no," he told her. "A kiss? We were sharing chocolate."

"That's--"

"And that was just for White Day. I still have to make Valentine's up to you. We didn't get to share then."

She was fuming now. "G-g-get out!" She shouted, pushing him away from her door.

He didn't budge to annoy her at first, but finally hopped onto the railing of the balcony. Looking down at her, he could see her angered expression, shocked at being kissed so suddenly and without warning. But the redness of her face said otherwise of what she really thought of that "kiss". Hmm—perhaps the holiday should have been Red day.

"I'll be back soon enough to make it up to you ... Amu," he said in a soft voice, hopping down from her balcony to the street below, before she could give a response.

And walking along back home, Ikuto couldn't take the feeling the taste of the chocolate had brought. And he knew very well that Amu had sensed that same taste. Either way, he would definitely be back for another take. Maybe Valentine's was too overly cheesy and girls could just be so annoying. But oh, how lustful and satisfying the simple touch of chocolate on his tongue could be.

And for the first time in a long time, Ikuto walked on home that night with a truly honest and happy smile. He knew the next day, he'd be back for more, bringing that same smile back on lips, along with the sweet taste of chocolate.

**- Chocolate: Unclichéd, end.**


End file.
